{"id":3949,"date":"2015-12-20T00:01:03","date_gmt":"2015-12-20T06:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=3949"},"modified":"2015-12-19T18:19:52","modified_gmt":"2015-12-20T00:19:52","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-462-featuring-anna-wright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=3949","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #462: Featuring Anna Wright"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nThe year is nearly over, and I want to be sure to highlight a beautiful nonfiction picture book from UK illustrator Anna Wright<\/a><\/strong>, called A Tower of Giraffes: Animals in Groups<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Charlesbridge, September 2015). This book, as the sub-title tells you, explores the collective nouns for groups of animals — towers of giraffes, flamboyances of flamingos, parcels of penguins, parliaments of owls. Wright’s writing is accessible and spirited, but it’s the art that really stands out. <\/p>\n

Wright—who studied at the Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland and who has a particular fondness (per her author bio) for fabrics and wallpaper—uses feathers and fabrics to bring her ink and watercolor animal drawings to life. Each spread includes a small handful of each animal, some looking right at the reader. The fabrics are all textured and appealing — you want to reach out and touch these spreads. The Kirkus<\/em> review<\/a><\/strong> calls the art “spectacular.”<\/p>\n

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The book doesn’t close with a list of Wright’s resources, but it still serves as a very basic introduction to the topic of family systems and social tendencies of the animal kingdom — and can certainly prompt further reading. The exquisite illustrations charm. They’ll draw you in and keep you there. <\/p>\n

Here are some more spreads.
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A TOWER OF GIRAFFES. Copyright \u00a9 2015 by Anna Wright. Spreads used by permission of the publisher, Charlesbridge, Watertown, MA.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Note for any new readers: 7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks is a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you. New kickers are always welcome. <\/p>\n

* * * Jules’ Kicks * * *<\/strong><\/font>
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1)<\/strong><\/font> Star Wars<\/em> was SO GOOD!<\/p>\n

2)<\/strong><\/font> That, as my daughters watched the movie with me, I knew they were seeing complex, strong female characters in the story. Thank you, J. J. Abrams. <\/p>\n

3)<\/strong><\/font> This image<\/a><\/strong>. Please click on that and take it in. So much brilliance there. <\/p>\n

4)<\/strong><\/font> Not long until<\/a><\/strong> the ALA Youth Media Awards are announced. <\/p>\n

5)<\/strong><\/font> I got to talk to a friend going through an illness and hard time. So good to hear her voice. I hope to see her in person soon. This should really be kick #1. <\/p>\n

6)<\/strong><\/font> It’s Christmas break for my daughters, which means more time to read together. <\/p>\n

7)<\/strong><\/font> To bring things full-circle here, it was really great to watch Star Wars<\/em> with a theater full of nerdy (I say that lovingly), devoted, reverent fans. <\/p>\n

What are YOUR<\/font><\/strong> kicks this week? Also, happy holidays<\/font><\/strong> to all!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Click image to see spread in its entirety)   The year is nearly over, and I want to be sure to highlight a beautiful nonfiction picture book from UK illustrator Anna Wright, called A Tower of Giraffes: Animals in Groups (Charlesbridge, September 2015). This book, as the sub-title tells you, explores the collective nouns for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seven-good-things-before-monday","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3949\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}